Zip lines, ropes courses proposed at Heavenly

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Four new zip lines, a climbing wall, a forest canopy tour and ropes courses are among the additions planned for Heavenly Mountain Resort this summer.

The U.S. Forest Service is asking for public comments on the proposed projects, which would start construction this spring if approved. Each of the additions would be located near the top of the resort's gondola.

An existing climbing wall would be replaced with a larger, approximately 30-foot-high structure near the resort's Tamarack Lodge. The forest canopy tour would be located between the Tamarack Express chairlift and the Big Easy ski trail. A proposed challenge course next to the ski school near Tamarack Lodge would also include an approximately 40-foot-high, multi-level climbing structure, according to the proposal.

A new zip line center would also be constructed in the area between the existing tubing hill and the Big Easy chairlift under the proposal. The center would include four zip lines approximately 1,000 feet in length.

Heavenly was named as a defendant in a wrongful death lawsuit stemming from an August 2009 incident involving the Flyer that killed 51-year-old Glendora, Calif., resident Mark Dickson.

Dickson was riding the Tamarack Express chairlift down from the top of the adjacent Heavenly Flyer with his wife when the 3,100-foot zip line's retrieval rope broke and became entangled in the chairlift, causing Dickson to fall approximately 50 feet. Dickson's wife survived.

Several hearings in the voluminous case are scheduled for later this month in El Dorado County Superior Court.

For more information on this summer's proposals, contact Jonathan Cook-Fisher at 530-543-2741 or jcfisher@fs.fed.us.

The Forest Service requests people submit comments on the projects prior to Dec. 21. A map of the proposed project area is available at: http://tinyurl.com/Heavenly2013.